Welcome to the End
by BecauseICanBeKD
Summary: It's the end of the world, baby, and we're in the middle of this glorious chaos we call life.
1. Chapter 1

_Welcome to the End_

 _Prologue_

* * *

 **Most Populated Countries**

United States: est. 324,118,787

Japan: est. 126,323,715

China: est. 1,382,323,332

India: est. 1,326,801,576

United Kingdom: est. 65,111,143

 **Current World Population:** est. 7,441,608,500

* * *

" _The end of the world begins the moment you die." – Billy Graham_

* * *

 _So...I'm just going to put this right here...:) Let me know what you think!_

 _BTW, Sasuke's Burlesque is still in progress. Student teaching, classes, and work is kicking my butt! The next chapter is almost done, so please be patient!_

 _Love_

 _KD 3_


	2. Chapter 2

_Oh lawdy I am sorry! I have the first three chapters ready to go, and I was trying to see how far I could go before I decided to put this up!_

* * *

 _Day 1_

 _This is the end  
Hold your breath and count to ten  
Feel the earth move and then  
Hear my heart burst again_

 _-Adele, Skyfall_

* * *

Sasuke gripped the handle above the door to the truck he was trapped in with a white-knuckled hold. Beside him, his best friend Naruto whooped in delight as the truck they were in flew through the pasture. The truck hit a hill hidden by the tall stalks of the grass and it was suddenly airborne. In the passenger seat, Sasuke let out a yell of terror as they flew through the air while his companion continued to whoop in excitement. It felt like the world slowed to a torturous pace, and Sasuke saw his life flash before his eyes before the truck plummeted to the ground. It tail-spun several more feet, leaving a wide arc of shredded grass and debris in its path. The black 2000 Ford F150 halted to a spot in the tall grass, its occupants in different states of shock.

"That was weak!" snarled Naruto. He pounded his hand on the steering wheel and glared at his truck. "I got way higher than that last week!"

Sasuke's chest heaved while his heart felt like it was about the jump out of his chest. The white-knuckled grip he had on the handle of the door did not loosen, but the hand that had somehow made it to the roof of the truck slowly lowered itself to his lap. He turned his head slowly to his friend, a look of absolute shock on his face at the sheer audacity this other boy had.

"It was because of your fat ass, Sasuke. You may have actually worked out or something while you were gone, but you certainly didn't actually lose anything-"

"Dude," Sasuke breathed. The cab was silent except for the harsh breathing in the back seat. A manicured hand shot out to grab the back of the front seats and their other best friend, Sakura, surfaced from the back seat of the truck with a disheveled expression. Her face was a stark shade of white as her wide eyes darkened and her nails threatened to tear into the cloth of the seats in front of her.

"Oh, hey Sakura!" Naruto exclaimed. He turned in his seat to grin at her. Sasuke only stared at him in shock. Sakura, on the other hand, reached with the hand that was on Naruto's seat and smacked the blonde head of the driver. "Hey! What the fuck?! Stop that!"

"You idiot!" Sakura screamed. "You could have fucking killed us! What the hell was going through your head to think this was okay?! You were supposed to get us to school, like, thirty minutes ago! We're late to our first day back to school, and it's only the first day of our second semester!"

"Well, I missed Sasuke so much, Sakura! It's not every day we get to go driving with our best friend who has been gone for over a year! I missed him."

Sakura huffed loudly, blowing up array bangs that hung in front of her eyes. She ran a hand through her hair and gave Sasuke a pointed look. "We both missed you Sasuke, but for God's sake, please drive next time?"

Sasuke grunted as he returned to his seat. His best friend beside him grinned with a boyish likeness and put the truck into drive. Turning the wheel to the right and, to the horror of his friends, did a few doughnuts in the field before shooting off through the field to hit the main road going into rural Atlanta. The ride was only twenty minutes from the home Sasuke Uchiha lived in with Naruto Uzumaki and the man that was Naruto's god-father. Sasuke had come back from spending a year in Japan with his father's side of his family, an experience that can only be described as awkward and stiff. The Uchiha family spanned back hundreds of years, and was one of the oldest families in Japan. They also owned one of the top ten most powerful companies in the world: Uchiha Corp. So, when Sasuke's older brother passed away in an accident, Sasuke was expected to travel to Japan to learn the ways of the traditional family. He was also expected to learn how to lead a company when he was only sixteen years old. His parents had divorced when he was thirteen years old, but when his mother died, he was taken in by Naruto's god-father. Now that he was back in the town he had grown up in, he was happy when his father, with the urging of his barely-older-than-him step-mother, moved back from Japan just as his last semester of his senior year started.

Sasuke leaned back in his seat and placed his head on the cold window. His breath fanned on it, and he frowned when he felt his seat get kicked by an angry seventeen year old girl in the back. Sakura was not only one of his best friends who was a girl, but she was one of his oldest, and closest, as well. They met when they were both four years old and in the same preschool, and Naruto later joined in a whirlwind of messy glue and an accidental kiss shared between the two boys. They were the terrible three, causing all kinds of mischief until they reached the time when Sasuke left. It was not an emotional goodbye between the three, and they did not part on good terms. However, when Sakura was called over to Naruto's house one evening a week prior to the current event, she was surprised to see Sasuke sitting on the couch across from the TV, playing Mortal Combat with a cursing Naruto as his character died in a finishing move. After much cursing and yelling on Sakura's side, she had grabbed him by the lapels of his Nike hoodie and pulled him into a tight hug. As soon as Sasuke moved to return the gesture, Naruto swooped in and finished the group hug with a happy laugh.

Now, the three sped down the highway to reach their destination. The cold Georgia winter air could be felt through the cracked window Naruto had opened in order to feel the cool air, and Sakura shivered in the back.

"Naruto, close the damn window. I'm freezing back here," she glowered.

"Where's that jacket you supposedly HAD to have?" Naruto blanched.

"I left it at home! I didn't know it was going to be twenty degrees outside!"

"You live in Georgia! How did you not know?"

The three friends climbed out of the truck, the two passengers moaning about having to ride with the monster driver of Atlanta. Sasuke adjusted his tie with a scowl, patting his jacket to get rid of any lingering wrinkles or dust. He was a stickler for professionalism, something he attributed to being a Japanese businessman for over a year. However, he can definitely say for sure he was like that before he traveled all the way across the world. Sasuke felt something pat the back of his navy blue uniform jacket, like someone was brushing something off. Turning around, he saw Sakura with a determined look on her face as she brushed off pieces of grass or dirt from it. Her uniform, which consisted of a mid-thigh length, navy blue skirt and a white dress shirt that buttoned up, was already immaculate. Like him, however a little more lax, wanted to look snazzy and well dressed. As a part-time nursing assistant, she always wore scrubs and her hair up, so she chose to look nicer at school since she is in her nursing scrubs often. The navy uniform jacket she wore covered her white shirt, and in order to keep warm she also wrapped a bright green scarf around her neck. His ears turned red at the thought of her hands on him and took a step forward from her moving hands. He smoothed his sweaty palms, despite the cold January air, against his navy slacks.

"Uh, thanks," he murmured. He missed the scowl she gave him, but she did not say a word as they walked into the preparatory high school they went to. The school was found just outside downtown Atlanta, but also laid near the more rural parts of the county Atlanta was in. The campus was large, with an even larger supporting staff. It was a relatively new school, so the student body had yet to grow in an alarming rate. Upon opening, the trio of friends' parents had immediately enrolled them into it –except for Sasuke's, since his only remaining family was in Japan. Only with special given permission, he was enrolled through Naruto's guardian, since he was the one Sasuke was living with. Sakura's parents were an entirely different story; she lived with her aunt and uncle due to her mother passing away and her father cruelly beating her. With her father in jail, she was adopted by her aunt and uncle, who lovingly took her in. As an outlet for her pent up rage towards her father, her family had her try out for the high school's softball team, where she was one of the top hitters on the team as well as the main pitcher. Despite the awful upbringing, she was a kind, sweet, intelligent, and beautiful girl and person to be around. Perhaps that is why Sasuke sometimes found it hard to breathe when she was around.

"I am SO mad at you, you idiot!" Sakura shrieked as they ran into the school. Her messenger bag thumped against her thigh as they ran, empty save for a spiral-bound notebook and pencils. Sasuke's jacket was still unbuttoned while Naruto's tie was undone, as usual. Naruto did not under any circumstance follow the dress code. While he wore the uniform, his top two buttons were undone while his tie was either loosely tied or not tied at all. He believed, as told to his friends, administrators, family, that it was restricting his freedom. However, everyone knew it was because he was lazy and he typically slept in so late that he just threw everything on with haste and ran out the door.

"You had fun and you know it!" Naruto cackled. As they ran through the halls and up flights of stairs, Sasuke was the only one who noticed how unusually quiet the halls were. Typically, there would be some stragglers who would be as late as they were. Sakura looked towards him when she saw him give a curious look around, one of her perfectly shaped eyebrows shooting up questioningly. When he caught her eye, he shook his head. They rounded a corner in the hallway and stopped short when they saw a group of students standing around the doorway of a classroom. The students were all murmuring as they watched whatever was happening in the room. They looked at one another and walked forward. Suddenly, there was a loud bang inside the classroom and the wall in front of them shook like something had been thrown against it. A loud, animalistic scream echoed from the classroom. There were shrieks from the girls surrounding the door as well as some that were still inside the class. A few students backed away from the door when they realized whatever was going on was not just fun and games.

Sasuke walked up to one of the students who was still bravely standing in front of the door. "What the hell is going on?" he growled.

"I don't know, man," the other boy said with a freaked out voice. "Marcus walked into the class this morning, acting all human and shit. When everyone started coming in, he got real quiet and put his head on his desk. When we asked if he was okay, he said his head hurt and he had been feeling shitty all night. Halfway through the morning lesson, he all of a sudden started throwing shit around, screaming like some deranged animal. An administrator came running in after he bit Ms. Yoshiro, and someone had to go out to find them and we all ran out as soon as shit started going down. The dude went psycho on Fernando when he tried to stop him. He actually tried to bite him! There was blood everywhere."

Another inhuman roar rattled through the room and into the hallway, causing some other students to back away and run. Naruto marched forward and shouldered past Sasuke and the other boy, followed closely by Sakura who stopped next to Sasuke.

"Naruto, stop!" Sakura said urgently. Naruto ignored her and stepped into the room. Sasuke, ever the cautious friend, followed after him with Sakura on his heels. When they entered the classroom, Sakura gasped at the sight of the chaos that was once their homeroom. Desks and chairs had been flipped and thrown everywhere. The teacher's desk was leaning haphazardly against the whiteboard. Two of the six windows were smashed from being broken by hurling objects. There were nail marks along the wall, and stains on the tile floor that suspiciously looked like blood had been spilled on it. In the center of the room, their classmate Marcus was hunched over as a placating administrator stood in front of him with his hands up in a surrendering gesture.

"Now, Marcus," the administrator said in a calming voice. "You need to calm down. We can go to my office where we can call someone to come get you."

The response he received was another guttural roar from the student. His once perfect, straight teeth now looked mangled and stained. Eyes that were once a dark blue were now completely black, as if the whole eye was consumed by darkness. Those same eyes followed the path of the newcomers in the room as they cautiously walked into the room.

"Hey, buddy," Naruto said slowly. "Why are you being like this? Didn't get enough pussy last night?"

"Naruto," Sasuke deadpanned. Naruto ignored him and sidled up to the administrator. Sakura stood in the doorway, hands clasped to the door frame in fear for her friends. Naruto shot him a look and turned back toward their friend. Marcus, who was now baring gross teeth, eyed Sasuke when he took another step forward.

"Has someone called the police?" Sakura whispered to a classmate somewhere behind her.

"Yeah," the girl whimpered. "But that was almost thirty minutes ago! Shouldn't they be here by now?"

"I don't know…"

"Hey, man," Naruto spoke up, catching Marcus's attention. The deep, dark eyes pierced into the blonde's body, jerkily shifting up and down, back and forth. "What's wrong with you, dude? You need to chill out-"

All of a sudden, Marcus opened his mouth and hissed. He leapt at the administrator, who was turned away from him to order Naruto to get back with the other students. The man screamed in terror as the boy, who was only slightly smaller than the older man, floored him into the tile of the classroom and sank his teeth into his shoulder. Another scream left the man's mouth, this one frantic and full of fear. The students in the doorway screamed as they watched him sink his teeth into the man until blood squirted from underneath his white collared shirt and onto the floor. Without thinking, Sasuke ran further into the room and grabbed an overturned chair that was laying on the floor and stepped quickly towards the preoccupied monster. Before Marcus could react, Sasuke swung the chair as hard as he could into the other boy's head. Screams quieted almost immediately as Marcus let out a deep whine and slumped off the administrator, who was clutching his shoulder and scooting away from the unconscious body.

The room was silent. Sasuke's shoulders heaved as he gulped for breath, eyes wide in shock. The adrenaline coursing through his body hummed, making his body shake and tense. Naruto stood off to the side, eyes wide as well as mouth agape. He stared at the body twitching on the floor, at the blood shining on the floor, and the sight of his friend. Sakura was kneeling next to the older man, having rushed forward as soon as he was close enough. She staunched the blood flowing from the wound on his shoulder. Concerned green eyes looked up at Sasuke, and she bit her lip hard enough to sting. The entire was silent, save for the quiet sobbing from the doorway of several of the female classmates and the incoming sound of the police sirens.

* * *

School was cancelled for the rest of the day. Police cars, multiple ambulance, fire trucks controlled the scene. Frantic parents were held behind police lines in order to keep the crowd from spilling into the crime scene and prevent chaos. Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were all taken to the police precinct for questioning along with many of their classmates. They did not know how their teacher, administrator, or their fellow classmate who had run rampant in the classroom were faring at that moment. The three were separated into three different interrogation rooms. Inside these rooms, men in suits waited for them patiently, dark sun glasses pushed to their heads. There were two in each room, and Naruto immediately jumped to conclusions.

"I know my rights!" Naruto yelled as he was thrown into the room.

"You're not in trouble, kid," the officer who was escorting him inside sighed. "We just want to know what happened. You're coming up with your own assumptions."

"I plead the fifth!"

Suddenly, there was a muffled shout of, "Shut up, Naruto!" from his two friends in their own rooms. Naruto crossed his arms and sat in his chair with a pout. The officer heaved another sigh and left the room, leaving Naruto with the two men in suits.

"Now that we have that taken care of," the first man said as he shuffled some papers in front of him. "Tell me what happened. Starting from the beginning."

"We were running late to school because we drove with Naruto," whispered Sakura. She was rubbing her upper arms against the cold of the room. "That idiot wanted to show us his new suspension in his truck."

"What kind of truck does he have?" one of the suited men asked. He was jotting down notes as she recounted their events.

* * *

"A Ford F150," Naruto beamed proudly. "I got her when I turned sixteen."

"The suspension is new," his questioner stated off handedly.

"Oh yeah! I worked really hard for it…wait, how did you know it was new?"

"Your friend told us. Anyway, what happened next?"

* * *

"We walked up to our class and everyone was standing in front of the door. When we heard all the yelling and stuff being thrown, we ran over and one of our classmates told us what happened," Sasuke said with a serious tone. His posture was straight in the chair, hands clasped in front of him on the table. It was the business man coming out of him, and he hated it. He hated how his father brought the cold out of him. The investigator thumbed through the file that was in front of him. Sasuke took in his unusual appearance: gray hair even though this man was obviously young and held back by his dark sun glasses, a tight mask that let him see the faint outline of his mouth as he talked, and an eye patch covering one of his eyes with a faint scar appearing from the top of the eye patch.

"What did the scene look like?"

"It was completely destroyed. It had obviously been going on awhile before we got there."

* * *

"How come you won't tell us how our classmates and teachers are?!" Sakura cried. Her hands were balled into fists against the suit's attempts to avoid the subject of their injured peers.

"They are doing just fine, Miss Haruno," the man said offhandedly. He placed his dark sunglasses on the table, revealing startling blue eyes that pierced into her eyes. "So I see you are a med student in the program your school offers? That's quite impressive. What is also impressive is how you managed to tourniquet your teacher's arm correctly. Normal seventeen year olds don't know how to do that."

Sakura paused, giving him an eyeful of disbelief. "Is that seriously what you're more worried about right now."

* * *

"Why are you so interested in the fact that I can work on my truck?" Naruto asked. "She's my baby! Of course I know how to work on her!"

"We're just curious, son," the man said. "What about your friend Sasuke Uchiha? What is he good at?"

* * *

"I played baseball all the way up until I left for Tokyo."

"Why did you leave?"

"…I had family business I had to take care of." The tension in Sasuke's shoulders increased at the further mention of his responsibilities in the other country.

"You accomplished a lot in Japan, I take it?"

"I tried. My father wanted me home after he found out my mom died here in America. He thought I would benefit better there."

"What else did you do while you lived in Atlanta?"

"Why are these questions necessary? This is not about what happened this morning anymore is it?"

The men in front of him were silent as they stared at him. The surrounding atmosphere felt thick with suspicion from both parties; there were secrets being kept from Sasuke, and he did not appreciate being in the dark. Suddenly, the door opened and Sasuke looked up to see Naruto's guardian, Jiraiya, standing in the doorway with a scowl. A nervous, yet frustrated Naruto was standing off to the side behind him, his arms crossed over his chest in a pout.

"Sasuke," the older man said gruffly. "Let's go. We're done here, gentlemen."

"Of course," one of the men in a suit said. He turned to Sasuke, who had stood up from his chair and was walking to the door. "We had a nice conversation, son." He reached into a pocket inside his jacket and handed him a card. "If you need or remember anything, do not hesitate to give me a call."

Sasuke hesitated before taking the card. It had the investigator's phone number and email on it, so he slipped it into the back pocket of his uniform slacks. "Sure."

"Sasuke," came Jiraiya's irritated voice. The boy turned away from the investigator and headed toward his guardian. He heard murmured whispers behind him as the men talked to one another, but they were muted as the door shut behind him. As Sasuke focused his attention in front of him, he saw Sakura running towards him and Naruto before he was pulled into a hug by the girl. Naruto's complaints were unheard by either of them while Sasuke reciprocated the action. His arms slipped around her waist and kept her close briefly until she pulled away from him.

"What did they ask you?" she asked. Sasuke shrugged the question away.

"Nothing serious. They just wanted to know what happened."

"Those guys kept questioning me about my baby!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Hey, kids," Jiraiya said. "Let's get you all home. Sakura, I have contacted your aunt and uncle. They couldn't be here to pick you up because there was an incident at the hospital today. They said you could stay at my house tonight since they won't be home."

"No way, you pervert!" Naruto exclaimed while they walked out the precinct doors. The hairs prickled on the back of Sasuke's neck at the feeling of being watched. He inclined his head back towards the building behind them, and furrowed his eyebrows at the sharp gaze being directed to him. The investigator who had been questioning him, with his unusual gray hair and half-covered face shadowed by dark sun glasses, was staring at him. His arms were crossed over his suited chest, and the faint outline of his mouth showed the frown he was expressing. It was as if the world slowed and the droning of Naruto's exclaiming voice deepened in his mind as he focused on the man in the window.

* * *

"I still can't believe that happened today," Sakura sighed. She pulled her legs closer to her on the couch. They were at Naruto's house, already dressed for bed even though it was only early in the evening. "What was that?"

"I don't know," Sasuke said. He and Naruto were laid out on the floor of the living room, Xbox controllers being abused while their characters shot at zombies. "All I know is it's suspicious as fuck and I don't appreciate being kept in the dark."

"Dude, shut up and concentrate on the way I'm beating the shit out of these zombies. Fuck!" Just as Naruto killed a zombie, he did not notice the other one coming up to the left and grab his character, dragging the character down with it and several other zombies. He threw the controller down on the floor while the countdown to respawn at another location began. "Cheaters."

"Yes, because the computer is the cheater," Sasuke said with a roll of his eyes.

"Like, we haven't even heard how Marcus and the teachers are!" Sakura exclaimed. She swung her legs back around the edge of the couch and crawled on all fours toward her friends. Sasuke refused to look at the girl, who was leaning over to Naruto's controller to take over for him. She was so close to him that their shoulders were barely brushing and her arm was lightly brushing his thigh.

"I think we would have heard something by now if it was important," Naruto grumbled. "If it wasn't for me and Sasuke, Marcus would have probably done something worse besides attack an administrator who doesn't even know how to properly do his job!"

"Oh, and you did such a perfect job of stopping him when he attacked," Sasuke murmured. When Naruto's character respawned, Sakura's finger gracefully flew across the controls, pressing the correct buttons to shoot and execute. Sasuke always admired how their friend could easily become one with a group of people, and adapt to her surroundings. She was always calm and collected, even though she has a quick temper as a result from her past. He respected her, and she in turn respected him and Naruto. He always knew she had a crush on him, especially before they got into high school, but when they returned for their freshman year, she was definitely a changed girl. Gone were the days of blushing and squeaking out hasty hellos, and good day to the strong, independent woman Sakura had become. She had changed so much since he had left for Japan that it frightened him.

Jiraiya popped his head in to the game room the three friends were in. He watched them interact with each other and smiled at the view of the friends. The three were practically inseparable, besides when Sasuke left. His young charge was devastated when his friend left, and very uncharacteristically moped around while Sakura scowled every day. The day that Sasuke came back was the day Naruto finally smiled a real smile. Sakura, on the other hand, refused to speak to Sasuke for the first week he was back. She finally confronted him outside of the house one day, standing outside in the freezing Georgia cold in only a pair of fleece pajama pants and a light jacket at one in the morning. After spending a good ten minutes yelling at him for leaving without telling them, she then proceeded to yell at him again about how much they missed him. When she was done, he could only stare at her in shock. He did not expect her to throw herself at him, pulling him into a hug that left him breathless. Ever since that moment, they have ignored what they were feeling. There were moments, however as Jiraiya was now noticing as Sasuke's stiff form clenched even more at the feeling of Sakura's leg brushing his.

"Hey, kids," he interrupted their conversation. Their heads turned toward the door as the older man stood within it. "Since school is cancelled tomorrow, I would prefer if you stayed until the day after tomorrow, Sakura. Your aunt and uncle called saying the situation at the hospital will demand their attention for the next couple of days and they would let you know when they would be coming to get you."

"Okay. Thank you!"

"Boys." The two boys turned to look at him and winced at the expression they were receiving. "Behave tonight."

"Get out of here, you perv!" Naruto exclaimed. "We would never defile Sakura!"

"That's…not quite what I meant, Naruto, but okay. Good night."

"Good night," Sakura said with a smile. She turned back to the game, which had been paused while they talked to the older man. Jiraiya smiled at the group of friends as they turned back to their game. He shut the door with a soft click and Sasuke sighed.

"I hope school is cancelled for the rest of the week," Naruto sighed hopefully. "That traumatic experience left me scarred."

"You're such a liar," Sakura scoffed. "You were more than happy to put yourself into the action."

"Sakura, you're so mean to me."

Sasuke scowled at the conversation. "Are we going to play or not?"

"Yeah! I'm going to beat your ass, Sasuke!" Naruto exclaimed. He snatched a wireless controller from its charging station and logged himself back in under his account. Sakura grinned at the prospect of a challenge and the three engaged in a battle against the Nazi zombies. Out of the corner of his eye, Sasuke felt more than saw Sakura scoot closer to him to put her head on his shoulder and Naruto prop his feet on his lap. He smiled softly to himself, his thumbs racing across the controllers.

Later that night, while they slept with a scary movie playing in the background, things in the world began to crank into motion.

* * *

 _Day 2_

Sakura awoke with a start. Sweat dripped down her temple, becoming a cool trail with the whir of the ceiling fan above her. She sat up slowly, the blanket that had been placed on her pooling around her waist. Loud snores roared on her left side, and a hand larger than her own clenched and unclenched against the side of her right thigh. Grabbing her phone from behind her, she squinted against the light that was right in her face. The time read 3:20 in the morning, and she groaned lightly under her breath. The hand on her thigh twitched, and Sakura pursed her lips at the feeling. When she looked down at the culprit, her mouth softened.

Naruto was snoring and sprawled out on her left, mouth wide open. While she used to spend the night all the time when they were younger, Sakura was still not used to the way her friend slept. Now that they were older and did not have opportunities like this anymore, she forgot that he was an all-over-the-place sleeper. As if not to let her forget it was there, the hand on her thigh spread itself further across the expanse of her leg, and she blushed when she realized who it was. Sasuke was turned on his side towards her, face buried into the body pillow they had brought from Naruto's room and were conveniently sharing as a pillow. While his left arm was tucked underneath where his head met the pillow, his right one had found its way to the spot on her leg, involuntary twitches causing it to migrate to different areas. When she had sat up, his hand had clenched and unclenched, squeezing with enough pressure to make her aware of its presence.

Sakura bit her lip before placing her hand gently on his and grasped it for a moment. Then, she picked it up and placed it on the floor next to him. Slowly standing up became a chore when she had a hard time squeezing herself from between the two suffocating boys. When she accidentally bumped Sasuke next to her, she froze when he gave sharp inhale of breath at the sudden disruption but settled back by rolling onto his back. She chewed on her lip and dropped to her knees instead of standing up. She crawled away from them all the way to the door and towards the bathroom. Behind her, due to her light accidental jostling, Sasuke's eyes cracked open as he slowly awoke to the sound of the bathroom door closing. He turned his head towards the bathroom and watched it for a minute until the sound of the toilet flushing caught his attention. The absence of the body beside him confirmed his suspicions of who was currently in the bathroom, so he laid back down on the soft down blanket the three of them had been sleeping on.

Sakura opened the door as quietly as she could while turning off the light. Sasuke watched her under a sleepy haze while she slowly crept back to her spot on the floor between the boys. Just as she was lowering herself to the blanket, her hand slipped and found its way into Sasuke's arm. She whipped her head to him and froze when she saw his gaze directed to her.

"Uhhh…" she stammered.

"You're fine," he whispered. He watched her as she lowered herself all the way down to the floor beside him. They laid beside each other and stared up at the ceiling fan that was lazily circling. The only sound in the room was the overbearing roar of their friend's snores.

"About today," Sasuke whispered. Sakura turned her head towards him and scooted closer as he continued. "I was scared shitless. I don't think I've ever seen that much blood before."

"You? Scared shitless? No way."

Sasuke scowled at her sarcasm. "Yes, stupid. I get scared too."

"Well, I was scared for you guys. I'm happy you're okay," Sakura whispered with a smile on her face. Sasuke smirked down at her and did not say anything when she scooted closer to him. Their hips and thighs were barely brushing as Sakura continued. "I'm really scared, too." Sasuke's hand clenched against the side closest to her, and grabbed her hand as it ghosted across his knuckles. She stiffened against the contact, and turned her head towards him with wide eyes.

"We'll be okay," he whispered. Sakura smiled as their hands entwined with one another's.

"Yeah," she whispered back. They both turned towards one another with their hands in between them. This was a pose that was not unfamiliar to them, including Naruto. When they were younger, they would all huddle together and fall lying next to each other. So, while this position they were in was familiar, it had become an intimate pose for the two of them.

They inclined their heads together until their foreheads touched. Sakura closed her eyes against the warmth of his breath and smiled.

"Your morning breath smells," she whispered. She opened her eyes to look back up at him and giggled silently at the aghast look he was giving her. Sasuke made a noise in the back of his throat and leaned closer to her, silencing her effectively.

"Yours doesn't smell like roses either," he growled. Before she could retort with a nasty remark, he smirked and grabbed the back of her head with his free hand. "Shut up, and don't talk."

He leaned in all the way to close the space between them and placed his lips gently on hers. It stole the gasp that threatened to escape her currently occupied mouth, but she fell silent again as she melted into his hold he had on the back of her head. Her free hand, much like his, moved to his head, but her hand cupped his cheek as they moved closer. The kiss was sweet and simple, and they laid there just enjoying the other's company. It was not until Sasuke's hand strayed from her head to her waist did Sakura arch into his body and sigh at the contact. His tongue made it into her mouth, but Sakura still found this moment oddly intimate rather than sexy. He released her waist and ran his hand through her hair at her temple, pulling the loose strands from her face that were falling out of her high messy bun. The movements were slow, just like his tongue against hers, and almost sluggish.

The two finally broke apart after a few more moments, and Sakura's face hazed over with a bright red. There was a smudge of red across Sasuke's nose and his eyes opened to stare down at her. Without a word between the two, they linked hands again and fell asleep. Unknown to them, their friend behind them laid awake, his eyes staring up at the ceiling in thought. Naruto's hand was clenched against his stomach, a pit having formed in stomach at the thought of things changing. Things _were_ changing, and he did not know if it was for better or worse.

* * *

 _Thank you,_

 _KD_


	3. Chapter 3

_For this is the end_  
 _I've drowned and dreamt this moment_  
 _So overdue I owe them_  
 _Swept away, I'm stolen_

 _-Adele, Skyfall_

* * *

 _Day 9_

They came the day school was opened again.

The men in black suits and dark sun glasses.

They stormed the school and invaded the classrooms. They drove the students into the auditorium that fit the entire senior class.

"Due to recent events that have afflicted this premises, we are forced to inform you of similar events that have plagued other parts of the state, country, and world," the man with silver hair spoke with obvious authority. Sasuke's back was rim-rod straight in his chair. His eyes were trained on the man who interrogated him, Naruto, and Sakura the week before. No news of Marcus or their teachers surfaced after the events, and it was soon forgotten. On the first day back, the students sat in their seats without knowledge of what had happened to their peer and teachers. The same day, their worlds changed. "My name is -"

"Is this about Marcus?" a student in the back called out. The man did not have to answer for them to know it was true. Chatter immediately erupted in the auditorium.

"What happened to our teacher?" Sakura asked. Her voice projected through the loud room, effectively quieting the space. The man turned his head towards her and his eyebrows dipped down, one disappearing into the eyepatch he wore. The line of his mouth showed a pondering expression.

"Yo, she asked you a question, old man," Naruto sneered from beside Sakura. His experience with the men was not a good one, and he held no respect for them.

"Watch your mouth, kid," a man standing next to the silver haired man snarled. He was cut off when the man held up a hand and his partner took a step back.

"Your teacher and fellow student are recuperating at a nearby hospital," he said calmly. "Their statuses have not been released due to confidentiality. Does that satisfy your curiosity, Miss Haruno?"

Sakura nodded her head slowly, and her eyes met Sasuke's. He gave her a reassuring smirk while his hand met hers under the armrests briefly for a quick squeeze. His eyes said _everything is going to be fine_ , but in reality his mind was screaming. Their hands parted in time for the man to start speaking again.

"As I was saying," the man continued. "My name is Agent Hatake, but you can call me Kakashi. We will get to know each other very intimately over this course of events."

Sasuke stared at the man with scrutinizing eyes. The fact that he was this suspicious made the hair on the back of his neck curl in anticipation for his next words. The detective swiveled his head to his partner and nodded for him to turn off the lights. The lights dimmed and the large projector screen at the front lit up with an intricate PowerPoint presentation. There was no title except for the detective's name and rank. Kakashi pressed the clicker he had in his hand and the first slide popped up. It was a video of a war zone somewhere out east, but it was not a normal scene from the war being fought with the terrorist. There were several gasps emanating from different parts of the classroom at the sight the picture held. Bodies were laying in the middle of a dirt road, blood pooling from wounds the students could not see. American soldiers were standing around, horrified at the scene in front of them. Suddenly, there was a shout to the left of the camera and it spun towards a body that was lying a few feet from it. The body of a young woman, that was previously lying motionless on the ground with blood pooling from her head, staggered up slowly from the dirt. Her back was arched as she took in her surroundings with dead eyes, and the bullet wound between her eyes leaked blackened blood. Soldiers began shouting as the dead woman began staggering towards the camera person, her lips curling back to reveal jagged and decayed teeth. Another shout was heard from the position and the camera unconsciously jerked to the side where the other bodies were staggering up from their resting places. Screams were heard from the soldiers being directly attacked by the people, and the camera was suddenly dropped and a gurgling scream was heard from behind it. A spine chilling crunch could be caught over the rest of the screams, and everything went silent as the video feed stopped.

The entire room was as silent as the feed, mouths agape at the shock of what they had seen. Sakura's hand was covering her mouth, eyes filled with terror at the gruesome scene. Sasuke glared at the screen, hands clenched tightly as Naruto sputtered something in shock. Kakashi clicked the button to turn to the next slide. It was pictures of soldiers training in specially designed body armor that appeared light, but was clearly protecting them as they fired at the targets in front of them.

"In an effort to fight off this terror that has found its way to our country, we are wanting to recruit trainees to begin training against these things. There is not an official name for them, but we know them from popular culture as zombies. However, we cannot certainly say that is what they are, as they seem to move quicker and are more powerful than what is known through pop culture. These particular organisms you saw in the video reanimated themselves when they were causing an issue with our troops in Asia. Whether or not they were a problem beforehand is not the issue. In order to contain this issue before further destruction is created, we must band together as a society to restrain them." Kakashi turned towards his partner and the lights lit up the silent room once again. "Now, I believe you have an exciting day of learning. I will not keep you any further. If you have any questions about what you have seen today, do not hesitate to ask."

Without another word, he and his men filed out of the gym. As they were leaving, the auditorium erupted in a flurry of panicked voices and sobbing cries. Students began to stand up in a rush, eager to go home whether they had class or not. Sasuke immediately stood up and grabbed Sakura's arm, who in turn grabbed Naruto's hand.

"We're going home," he said.

"We need to grab our stuff, Sasuke," Sakura said firmly. Sasuke stared down at her pursed lips and wrinkled nose. Naruto was staring at him seriously, his eyebrows knitted together.

"Naruto, go with her to grab our stuff. I doubt anyone is staying to deal with this shit."

"Roger that, asshole." Naruto turned with Sakura's hand in his and they made their way through the throng of students and out the side doors. Sasuke glared at anyone who was in his way and dropped a shoulder into anyone who dared to push past him. As he was pushing his way out the door to the school parking lot, he swore he could feel the gaze of a certain one-eyed man burning into his back.

* * *

"What did Kakashi mean by 'recruiting trainees'?" Naruto asked. They were driving through part of downtown Atlanta to go home and meet with Jiraiya and Sakura's guardians. As far as the three knew, the adults were at Jiraiya's house waiting for them to talk about the impromptu meeting at the school.

"It means they are wanting to enlist us," Sakura said with a scowl. "They can't do that without parent consent."

"Unless you are eighteen," Sasuke added. The comment left a cold chill in the Ford 150, and the group went silent. Sasuke grabbed hold of the handle above the door in the passenger seat as his friend made a hairpin turn around a corner. Although it was still the late morning, traffic was slightly heavier through the part of Atlanta they were traveling through. After several minutes of blaring his horn at ignorant drivers, Naruto broke through the traffic and flew down the ramp toward their homes. Suddenly, Sakura squawked and flapped her hand, hitting Naruto's shoulder.

"Dammit woman, what?!" Naruto yelled, flinching away from her hand. The truck swerved while he attempted to avoid her hand.

"We need to stop by my house! I have to get some stuff!"

"We don't have time for that!"

"Why are we in such a hurry?! My aunt and uncle aren't off work yet anyway."

With a groan, Naruto hair pinned another corner to Sakura's house.

"Dude, drive like a normal person," Sasuke moaned. His head was leaning on the cool glass of the window, and he was looking a little pale.

"You're not going to go all Marcus on us are you?" Naruto asked.

"I'm pretty sure Marcus was not acting on his own volition. Besides, that video we watched showed the people were dead before they started acting like that."

It was silent in the cab before the comment sunk it.

"Holy shit!" Naruto exclaimed and slammed on the brakes. There was a loud thump as his truck hit something and then ran over it. The two occupants jerked forward in their seats at the sudden stop. Sasuke's head snapped back up and he turned to glare at his friend, but he whipped his head around when Sakura let out a horrified gasp. The scene in front of them was like one from a bad accident. Sakura's street was filled with cars that had collided with one another in an effort to avoid something. Further down the street, there was an overturned public transportation bus that was in flames. People were running around screaming as other people chased them. The ones chasing the others clawed at them, while others actually managed to grab a hold of them and drag them to the pavement. The screams of those who were pulled down became desperate and frantic, bone-chilling squeals as blood squirted in the air. Although they were still in the truck, the three teenagers could hear the shrill cries for help but were frozen in fear at the scene in front of them.

All of a sudden, a bloody hand shot up from under the hood of the truck and Sakura let out a cry in surprise. With horror filled expressions, they watched as the bloodied hand started sliding around to the passenger side. There was a thumping sound coming from the front as the person moved along the side until the hand fell from the truck as it rounded the front and to the side. It was silent besides the screams from outside as the other people were running away from their attackers.

Sakura let out another scream when the hand came up and slammed against Sasuke's window. Blood smeared in a bloody handprint as the hand pulled the body of a man that had obviously been one of the ones who was attacked. There was a gaping hole in the left side of his neck and upper shoulder where it had been torn out. He was missing his left arm, where the remains of his arm were loose flaps of skin with a splintered bone dripping blood onto the dark asphalt. His ruined white dress short was soaked in the blood he had lost, the left arm hole shredded along with his missing arm. The look in his eyes caused a shiver to run down Sasuke's spine as the now deceased man looked blindly into the cab of the truck. Sasuke heard Sakura whimper when the man shoved his face closer into the window, little white fog marks marking the window every time the corpse exhaled. All of their eyes were locked onto the man, wide with fear and apprehension. The one thing that Sasuke noticed was the fact that his eyes looked exactly like Marcus's the day he went feral. The black pits that once held white eyes jerked from side to side, as if blindly looking inside for the occupants.

Naruto looked down at his gear shift, which was still in Drive from where he had slammed on the brakes. His eyes shifted towards the dead man sniffing at his passenger window and made his decision. He looked down again slowly at the stick and moved his shaking hand towards it. Curling his hand around the stick, Naruto looked at his best friend, who saw him out of the corner of his eye. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at his friend's hand when it flexed around the stick. The bloody man saw the subtle movement of the action and his lips, shredded from his attacker, curled back to reveal gnarly teeth that reminded Sakura of Marcus's. With a roar that sounded much like their ex-classmate, he reared his head back as Naruto jerked the stick and floored the gas pedal. There was a screech of fury from the corpse when it was left in the dust, and it began running after the truck. Sakura was screaming in Naruto's ear _go, go, go!_ while Sasuke had a hold of the handle above the door and yelling _watch out!_ as another one of the bloody attackers hurled themselves at the truck.

Naruto weaved around the dead and alive. He was flying down the road and flew past the burning bus that was the cause of the mess. Sasuke looked ahead with wide, searching eyes, and his ears picked up on harsh breathing from behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see Sakura breathing heavily against the driver seat. Her eyes looked as wide as his, but hers were unseeing. It was like she was staring at nothing but the chaos and carnage they were quickly leaving behind.

In front of them, emergency responders were speeding towards the scene, not paying attention to the old Ford with bloody handprints all over the front passenger side window driving the opposite direction.

* * *

"…ra."

"…kura."

"Sakura!"

The girl jumped at the sound of her voice being urgently spoken. The slight bump of the truck pulling into the driveway of her home cleared her vision at the thought of being safe and away from the slaughter she had witnessed. Sakura looked up to see Sasuke and Naruto staring at her expectantly, and she realized they were actually there. The truck was parked outside her aunt and uncle's home, which was a standard single family home. It was a two level home with all of the spare bedrooms on the second floor, while the master bedroom was on the ground floor. There were many instances where the boys would stay the night there and stay in one of the bedrooms on the second floor, where Sakura's bedroom was located as well.

At the top of the driveway, she saw her aunt and uncles' cars. Her aunt's driver side door was open with the keys still in the ignition, yet the car was not turned on. She breathed a sigh of relief at the sight. That meant they had not left for Naruto's house yet, and that they were safely waiting for them to get there to leave. Naruto opened his door so she could open hers, but a hand stopped her from getting out. Sakura looked down and saw Sasuke's hand on her knee, and she looked up at his face. His eyes were searching hers and she raised her eyebrow at his questioning gaze. With a subtle flare of his nostrils, Sasuke let go of her knee and moved to get out of the truck.

"Holy shit," they heard Naruto say. The two still in the truck moved out of it quickly to see what their friend was talking about. Naruto was standing on top of the truck looking towards Atlanta, his eyes wide. When his friend joined him, Sakura gasped and grabbed hold of Sasuke's jacket sleeve. From their place on top of the truck, they could see the place where the bus accident and their attackers had begun to spread towards the busy city of Atlanta. Smoke was curling up in the air from several places around the city, but they could not hear the screams of those they knew were being attacked or worse. In the background, the sound of emergency vehicles were heard rushing to the areas of incident.

"Come on," Sasuke said. "We need to hurry and get the stuff you needed to get, Sakura."

"Okay," she said quietly. Sakura jumped into the tailgate of the truck, and then slid down to the ground. Her school uniform skirt fluttered out behind her, but that did not distract Sasuke from looking at her shaking legs. It was not fair that this was happening to them all of the sudden. What did they do to deserve this?

Naruto bounced off the roof to the tailgate, his legs taking the impact of the jump when he got onto the driveway. Sakura was just reaching the front door as Sasuke made it to the ground too, when he suddenly realized that something did not feel right. They were told they were supposed to meet her aunt and uncle at Naruto's house, but they were still here at the house. Jiraiya would not have come and picked them up either, especially if it was still the late morning. So, if their cars were still in the driveway, and they had come back early in the morning from their shifts at the hospital, then something was definitely wrong if they were still there.

"Hey, dude," Naruto whispered. He was standing by Sakura's aunt's car, where the front driver's side door was still ajar. "There's something wrong. Look at the seat and the wheel." Sasuke stepped closer to the car and leaned closer to look at what Naruto saw. At first, he did not see anything. But, as he looked closer, he could see exactly what the problem was. There was blood all over the headrest, right side of the driver seat, and the wheel. It had also splattered all over the driver side windshield. The boys followed the blood from the car to the pavement, where there were droplets leading all the way up to the front door of the house. Looks of horror on their faces when they realized their friend had gone through that same door bloomed. They turned from the bloodied car and raced through the front door, calling Sakura's name.

"I'm in my room!" she called from upstairs.

Sasuke turned to Naruto. "Go check the master bedroom. We need to get the hell out of here." Naruto nodded and turned toward the back of the house. Sasuke ran up the stairs, down the hallway, and stopped in Sakura's doorway. Her room was decorated unlike a normal seventeen year old girl was supposed to have it done. There was a bed that was covered by a white down duvet, and the sheets were a light blue. Her walls were also a light blue, and there were pictures of family members and friends that were lined along the wall and on top of her dresser. The only thing that threw the whole room off were the dirty clothes strewn all over the floor. Her new softball bat, which was a present from her uncle at the end of the end of the last softball season, was leaning against the wall near the door, the unmarred white and gold paint shimmering in the light. Sakura was currently shoving clean and dirty clothes into an overnight bag, humming a song to herself. For a brief second, he took in the sight of her busying herself around her room. The smile she had on her lips made him realize that everything was going to change, and that he may never see that smile anymore. But, he thought to himself, this was not the time to be thinking about that.

Sakura looked up at him with a concerned expression. "Is everything okay, Sasuke?"

"No. You need to hurry."

"Where are my aunt and uncle?"

Sasuke's throat was tight. He knew the answer to her question, and when she saw the pain stricken look on his face, her lips grew thin and her eyes widened. With a quick nod, she packed the last things in her hands and zipped the bag up.

"Let me grab my toothbrush and stuff from the bathroom and we'll leave," she whispered. She walked past him and out into the hallway. The bathroom was situated directly across from her room, so Sasuke followed her into it. Although he was stationed at the doorway, he had his head poking out to make sure nothing jumped out at them. From the stairs, he saw Naruto turn the corner and head up the stairs. He looked up and shook his head, signaling there was no one downstairs. Sasuke blew out a sigh of relief, and Sakura stood next to him with her things packed up. Naruto met them at the bathroom door and looked at Sasuke.

"Did you tell her?" he asked.

"He didn't have to," Sakura whispered. "I saw the blood when I came in the door. I just hope-"

Suddenly, there was a small thump from down the hall away from the stairs. The three friends froze. They waited another couple of seconds, and another thump was heard along with a drawn out moan. Naruto swallowed, took two steps towards Sakura's bedroom door, and grabbed her bat.

"Stay here," Sasuke growled at the girl in the bathroom. Sakura nodded, clutching her overnight bag in white fists. Sasuke looked at Naruto and the other boy nodded. With the bat gripped in sweating fists, Naruto walked forward with his friend walking beside him. They walked heel to toe to avoid the creaky spots in the floor. Thoughts were racing through his head of what would be behind that door, and he became mentally prepared for it. Or, at least he felt like he thought he was prepared. They stopped at the door of one of the guest bedrooms that was at the end of the hall, one the two boys frequently occupied. Naruto put his hand on the doorknob and twisted it, wasting no time in viewing the scene behind the door.

The room was a bloody mess. Blood splatters caked the walls and the bed, and it was still dripping from the freshly sprayed spatters. There was a thick puddle of blood in the middle of the room where the source of the groaning and growls were coming from. In the middle of the puddle was Sakura's uncle, who was hunched over the prone form of her aunt. The two boys could see the top of her head, where her dark blonde hair was matted with blood. Her legs, which were situated to where they could see them laying the opposite way of her head, twitched with every growl and groan her uncle emitted. The door swung open further as the boys stood in shock at the scene in front of them. Naruto's knuckles turned white as he gripped the bat harder, and he started taking steps toward the hunched form of the man he thought of as his own uncle. From over his shoulder, Naruto could see his head was bent over his wife's throat, and there was a gaping hole in the area where her carotid artery used to be. That area was now free flowing with blood that came down in rivers. He could see the jaw of the man working as it chewed through muscle and skin.

Biting back the lump in his throat, he stopped just a few steps from the body. Sasuke stood behind him for support, eyes narrowed in apprehension. Suddenly, there was a gasp from behind them and Sasuke whipped his head around to see Sakura cover her mouth with a shaking hand at the scene. The noise caused the thing that was once her uncle to stop his feast on her aunt. Sasuke's eyes widened as her uncle –no, _thing_ —turned to look behind its shoulder to stare at the group behind it with wild eyes. Dropping the body with a sick _thud_ and a squelch from the soaked carpet, it lurched forward as it stood up from its spot in the puddle of blood. Naruto took a hesitant step back and his grip on the bat slipped. It dropped to the floor with a muffled _clang_ and the thing in front of him growled. Its gnarled fingers curled into claws while it bared its bloody teeth and gums at the three.

Sakura screamed in terror as it lurched itself at Naruto and Sasuke. The two boys threw themselves away from it, Naruto landing by the bed and Sasuke at Sakura's feet. Sasuke's eyes landed on Sakura's bat a foot away, and the thing that was once Sakura's uncle was snapping its way towards Naruto who jumped over the bed. Sakura screamed at Naruto when he reached them and grabbed her to keep her from throwing herself into the room to defend. Just as it launched itself over the bed, everything went in slow motion for Sasuke. He grabbed the bat from the floor and fell into a sloppy batter's stance. He honed in on its head, and swung the bat as hard as he could. His arm vibrated at the sudden contact and he hissed at the pain that laced his shoulder from an old, torn muscle from playing baseball. However, Sakura's uncle dropped like a sack of rocks to the ground. Half of his face was smashed, and the left side of his head caved in slightly from the hard impact of the bat.

The first thing Sasuke registered as everything was coming back down to Earth was the heavy breathing that was coming from his own mouth. Adrenaline pumped through his body; he stared at the body in front of him while blood seeped into his shoes and Sakura's uncle twitched on the floor. There were small growls leaving his lips and his teeth were gnashing against a bloody mouth. The second thing he noticed was the sound of Sakura pushing against and yelling at Naruto, calling out to him in desperation.

"Stop it!" she screamed. "Sasuke! He's my uncle! Don't kill him!"

Sasuke felt something slide down his cheek that was hot. He lifted a hand to wipe it away, and it came back slippery and red. His hand started to shake, and he closed his eyes against the nausea creeping up into his stomach and throat. But, he clenched his fist around the blood. His eyes opened and looked down at the twitching body in front of him, and then to the still one a couple feet away.

"Naruto." The voice that came out from his throat sounded unfamiliar.

"Yeah?" came the whispered reply.

"Take Sakura downstairs, and shut the door behind you."

The demand was followed by silence, and suddenly Sakura became hysteric.

"NO, Sasuke! You can't—you can't do this! I won't forgive you, you bastard! Don't fucking touch me, Naruto! No! Stop! Put me down! Sasuke!"

The last thing Sakura saw was the tightening of Sasuke's shoulders and the rise of the bat in his hands.

* * *

 _Day 15_

The house was silent.

After the events in the bedroom upstairs, Sakura refused to leave the house. It was a good decision on her part; the world outside had turned into chaos by the time they were ready to leave. As they were preparing to leave, another group of the infected saw the boys loading things into Naruto's truck and charged them. They ran back into the house since they did not have any weapons, where they found Sakura glaring at them from her spot on the couch. With the sound of the things slamming themselves on the door, the two boys pushed furniture against the front door until they deemed it suitable. A couple of hours later, the pounding stopped and was followed by the sounds of screams and explosions.

Finally, after three days, the world was silent.

The three teens found ways to occupy themselves within the house. Naruto was fortifying the backyard fence with barbed chicken wire Sakura's aunt and uncle had stored in the shed outside. He was also keeping watch in the upstairs bedroom that faced the street, waiting for a sign of his guardian. Jiraiya had made no attempt to contact them, and that was what made Sasuke and Naruto fear. If he was dead, or _worse_ , then they had no way of contacting any help. On the third day, when everything fell silent, they discovered the phone lines and television were down. The internet was down, as well as the power. Those were the first things that went down in the first three days. Every night they were bathed in darkness, except for the candles they found in the master bedroom. Sakura's uncle had been a hunter, so he had flashlights and survival equipment stored in the shed outside. The only times they used what was in the packs was when it was dark. The boys had broken into the gun cabinet that was in the master bedroom, so they were well stocked with a standard hunting rifle and pistol. The only reason they knew how to use them was the fact that her uncle would take them every now and then with him to his isolated deer hunting spot.

The only one who was not trying anything was Sakura. After the first day, and the boys had finished fortifying the front door, she disappeared to her room upstairs. On the day that everything went silent she locked herself in her room, not opening the door for anybody or anything. Naruto tried knocking on the door and coaxing her out with food from the pantry, but all he received was silence. Sasuke knew why she did not want to be around them; she had literally seen him bash in her uncle's skull. He could not even stand to be in the same skin anymore. His shoulder throbbed in pain, the old torn muscle from his baseball days flaming back up. He slept on the couch in the living room, the silence caving in on him. Every night since the first day, he had nightmares of the attack. He dreamed he repeatedly caved in the side of her uncle's skull, and then her aunt's skull as well. Every night that he woke up in a cold sweat he could hear the moans and growls of those outside who did not escape the fate that was set upon them.

Every night he woke up, he waited for Sakura to come downstairs and talk to him again.

Every night he woke up, he waited for Naruto to come downstairs from the perch he had made in the only bedroom that was not occupied by either blood or depression.

Now, as he waited for someone to come downstairs, he laid on the couch in another cold sweat and nausea curling his stomach as the stench of blood permeated his nose.

That was where Sakura found him when she tiptoed her way downstairs in sweatpants and a messy bun. The sports bra she wore supported her chest, but the last thing she was thinking about was modesty at the moment. She adjusted the low hanging pants as she turned the corner to the living room. Upon seeing Sasuke laying on the couch breathing heavily and a hand clamped over his mouth, she stopped in her tracks. Struggling with herself about whether or not to go to him, her heart won. When she came into his perspective slowly, Sasuke twisted around with his back facing the back of the couch. His eyes were wide as they watched her come around the couch and stand by his feet. Her eyes shifted briefly to his feet, silently asking him to move them. There was a brief pause before he shifted to a sitting position and she sat gingerly in the spot where his feet had been.

It was silent, the hole between them wide. The only sound that could be heard were the crickets echoing outside the house. There were occasional snarls from some of those prowling around outside, waiting for the moment to strike. Sasuke remembered watching a program when he lived in Japan with his father that showed tigresses stalking their prey through fields of flowing grass. When the right moment came, they pounced as one. The giraffe they had been stalking got away at first, but as they chased it, it became tired until it slowed down enough for the tigresses to bring it down. He had a feeling these things would do the same the moment they stepped out of the house. They would chase them down until they could not run anymore, take them down, and tear them apart.

Suddenly, there was a light sob from Sakura's end of the couch. Sasuke lifted his head from the back of the couch to peer at her with hooded, tired eyes. Her lower lip was trapped between clenched teeth, but she was staring straight ahead with glistening eyes. She refused to look at him; she was worried her eyes would convey the hatred she felt for him. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at her as she broke down. This was not how he wanted to see her after having NOT seen her for four days. Gritting his teeth against the pain in his shoulder, he shifted his legs to the floor and made his way down the couch. Sakura's eyes darted to his movements and she shrank against the couch. Another sob ripped from her mouth. The sound stopped Sasuke from moving, his hand inches from her left ankle. His fingers twitched, then curled into a tight fist.

For the first time in four days, he spoke to her.

"It's not like I had a fucking choice," he whispered. There was an edge to his voice, irritation and exhaustion showing like an ugly demon. "He would have killed us."

"Shut up, you fucking bastard," Sakura spat. "I watched you bash his skull in. Even after I begged you not to do it." As she spoke, her voice rose from a strained whisper to an intimidating growl that strangely did not faze him. "But you went ahead and did it. You always do what you want, even if it's not the right thing."

"Why can't you be glad I saved your life instead of acting like a fucking bitch?" Sasuke growled.

"Because you killed my uncle after I begged you not to! You killed a man in cold blood!"

"He was trying to kill you! He wasn't your uncle anymore, Sakura!" This stunned her into silence. She stared at him with the same glistening eyes she had tried to hide earlier, and her lower lip began to tremble again. Sasuke gritted his teeth again and threw himself back again. His shoulder was throbbing, and his other hand came up to hold it. They sat in silence again, the only sound the small sniffles coming from the girl who had lost everything.

"It's not fair," she whimpered. Sakura's voice was thick with tears. Sasuke leaned his head back and squeezed his eyes against the pain, physical and emotional. He could not agree more. "It's not fair that we have to go through this. It's not fair the world decided to fuck us like this."

"At least you don't have nightmares about bashing skulls in." It flew out of his mouth before he could stop it. The look Sakura gave him made his throat tight, and he cleared his throat to avoid having to explain himself.

"Oh, Sasuke," Sakura moaned, tears falling down her red cheeks. "I am so sorry."

Sasuke shook his head, then placed hands over his face. "Don't apologize for something you didn't do." His voice was muffled through his hands.

"But, if I hadn't told Naruto to come here, you wouldn't have had to…do that."

"Sakura, for the love of God, shut the fuck up. It is not your fault," Sasuke said suddenly, his hands flying from his face in frustration. Sakura closed her mouth against what she was going to say, but her eyes showed her feelings. She was frustrated and upset that the events could have been prevented. They sat in silence again for another few seconds. Then, there was another sob. However, it did not come from Sakura this time. She looked up from her lap in disbelief to see Sasuke rubbing his face with his uninjured arm, rubbing away the tears that had started to fall. Finally, his arm just laid across his eyes, unable to stop the onslaught of tears he could not control. With a trembling lower lip, Sakura crawled from her spot on the couch to his side. At first she was hesitant, hands shaking as she reached out to him. Memories of the same body swinging the bat up to smash her uncle's head in, made her whole body shake and tears come to her eyes. The blood that had caked his hands and shirt and face and hair and _everywhere_ was still visible, even though he had spent over an hour cleaning himself and finding new clothes to change into. The visions of the splattered blood made her shake, but she wrapped her arms around him anyway.

Once she was pushed up into his side with one arm thrown around his middle, she suddenly found herself half on top of him. One leg was slung over his thigh, and his uninjured arm was pulling her closer. Sasuke took a deep breath through his nose and released it out of his mouth. His face was wet, and his eyes were red.

"I stayed down here," he took another breath as a pause, "by myself. For three days. Waiting for someone to come down here. I've had nightmares for three days about what I did to…to him."

Sakura nodded into his chest and shut her eyes. Tears spilled from the corner of each eye and darkened the light gray shirt he was wearing.

"Naruto hasn't talked to me for two days. He's been holed up in that room, watching for any signs of help. You've been in your room, by yourself, for three days. All I want is your forgiveness."

"There's nothing to forgive, you dumbass," Sakura whispered. She looked up at him, her own eyes wet and red from crying. "I'm sorry I wasn't there for you. I had no idea you were suffering like that. I was…I was just so _scared -_ "

Suddenly, Sakura found herself on her back, eyes wide in shock. Sasuke hissed in pain, but brought his injured arm to brush back her bangs from her eyes. Sakura's eyes shot to his shoulder, the one she knew he had injured when he played baseball his sophomore year of high school. She reached up and brushed up his arm with a cold hand. His muscle jumped at the contact, and his face flashed something she did not recognize.

"Did this happen when…" she trailed off. His arm quivered from the sore muscle, and he sucked in a breath before nodding. Dark eyes followed her hand as it moved up to his shoulder, and they closed as it cupped the side of his neck. Her thumb brushed his cheek, catching on the wet trail that was still drying. The arm that was holding him up lowered him to his elbow. His forehead touched hers, and they both closed their eyes at the closeness. Sakura's breathing came out slightly faster than normal with it fanning across his mouth.

Then, without warning, his body dropped and his head was cushioned on her chest. Sakura let out a gust of breath at the sudden impact, and chuckled as Sasuke grinned against her collarbone.

They laid like that, with Sasuke's body covering Sakura's and her legs tucked underneath his, until the light from the morning peeked through the crack in the curtains where Sasuke looked out every day. Sasuke had passed out not long after finding his new position, and Sakura had followed along shortly after. He was breathing out on her collarbone, sending short gusts of breath onto her chest. He had tucked his injured arm around her waist and his other one extended over her head. Sakura had her turned her head into the crook her elbow, which was pushed into the couch. Since the couch did not leave much room to move around, they had been stuck like that for last few hours.

They laid like that, peacefully asleep.

Until Naruto came barreling down the stairs, yelling at the top of his lungs,

"Wake the fuck up! There's a tank out in the streets!"

* * *

 _Thank you,_

 _KD_


	4. Chapter 4

_Let the sky fall_  
 _When it crumbles_  
 _We will stand tall_  
 _Face it all together_

 _-Adele, Skyfall_

* * *

Sasuke peeked out between the curtains, his eyes glaring out in the street. For the last couple of hours, a military tank had been rolling through the narrow streets. It was moving back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, as if they knew the three were in there. Naruto had proclaimed it was Jiraiya coming for them, but then Sasuke asked _how would Jiraiya have gotten a tank so soon?_ Naruto had deflated at that, and sat for a second just thinking of the possibilities. Now, the three of them were sitting in the living room, debating among one another what they should do. The noise from the tank had attracted most of the things away from the house, but there were a few stragglers roaming around in the front yard.

"Is it safe, you think?" Sakura's voice sounded like an explosion in the quiet room.

"Well, considering there are those assholes roaming around outside, probably not," Naruto mumbled. Sasuke cut his eyes at his friend's attitude, then returned his attention to the tank, which had reappeared on a closer street. A crowd of dead snarled and groaned at the slow moving tank, but they were not fast enough to get their gnarled hands on it.

"I meant are the people in the tank safe, _douchebag_ ," snapped Sakura. He had continuously given her attitude since they told her there was no way Jiraiya could have gotten a tank in the last few days, and frankly she was tired of it.

"Shut up," Sasuke finally said. "Both of you are pissing me off…" He trailed off, eyebrows furrowing when a new sound came from outside. The pitter patter of gun fire echoed in the empty streets, and it seemed to be coming from the tank.

"Is that gunfire?!" Sakura exclaimed. She rushed to Sasuke's side and pushed the curtain open more. Sasuke felt Naruto stand on his other side as he stared out into the street. If he watched carefully, the nose of an assault rifle snuck out of a slot the people inside looked out of and gunned down another of the dead. This action seemed to anger them more, and the noise was beginning to attract more of them.

"We need to help them," Sakura said suddenly. She pushed away from the window and the two boys turned towards her. They looked at each other before they took off after her. Sakura ran up the stairs to the second floor, purposely avoiding the room that reeked of blood. Taking two steps at a time, the boys quickly caught up to her in time to see her pulling on the cord to the attic. The stairs came down with a groan and she put one foot on the ladder.

"What are you going to do?" Naruto asked. Sakura ignored the question and turned to him.

"Do you still have my uncle's hunting rifle?"

"Yeah? Why?" Sakura nodded to herself and told him to go get it. When he disappeared into the room he had been hiding out in, Sakura turned to Sasuke who stared at her with suspicious eyes.

"You know this is not Call of Duty, right?" he asked.

"No," she said with a sigh. "But it's better than nothing. If we can help them, maybe they will help us." Naruto came out with the hunting rifle in his hand, and his other hand held a full box of ammo. "You and I both know the food is running low." She slung the rifle over her shoulder, the strap being cushioned against her chest.

"Yeah, I know." Sasuke inhaled through his nose sharply when Sakura began climbing up the attic stairs. The rifle bumped against her back, and for some reason the scene made Sasuke sick to his stomach. He saw an image of Sakura standing on top of a slab of rubble, an assault rifle slung against her back and a pistol in her right hand. Her eyes were hard and narrowed against the sun peeking out from dark clouds. It illuminated her face, and the traces of unwashed tears creating paths against dirt-streaked cheeks. The image was swept away when Sakura began ascending the stairs up to the attic with Naruto bolting down the steps to the main floor. Sasuke stood there in the middle of the hallway, totally alone with only his thoughts of a blood-soaked world and renegade friends fighting for their own survival.

* * *

Sakura carefully set the rifle on the ground next to the window that faced out to the street. She flipped the latches that kept the window closed and struggled for a second before the window opened with a soft creaking sound. A steady drizzle had started up, and she squinted when a burst of wind brought some in. Taking a deep breath, she pulled a stool that had been stored in the attic over the window and plopped down on it. From her spot, she could see the tank and its group of stragglers clearly. She picked up the rifle and laid it across her thighs. She marveled it ruggedness, just like she did when her uncle would take her hunting every weekend. The memory of its recoil made her smile as she remembered how her uncle told her to lean into the gun so the recoil would not hurt her shoulder. The familiar feeling of adrenaline pulsed through her as she set up the scope of the rifle, her finger prodding the safety. She had been taught not to turn the safety off until she was ready to shoot, so she was not jumping the gun just yet. Setting the rifle up on the window sill, she leaned into the scope and trained her sights on the first bloodied man. Its mouth was agape as it struggled to keep up with the tank, inaudible groans and snarls coming from it. Blood stained the once-nice dress shirt that would have looked nice in its suit jacket if a gaping hole that showed innards spilling from it did not ruin the look. It was limping after the tank, its left foot dragging behind it. Sakura grit her teeth at the vision in front of her, and flipped the safety. Anger throbbed through her system as she got ready to squeeze the trigger.

But, she found she could not do it. Releasing a sudden breath she did not realize she had been holding, Sakura's body shuddered. Who was she kidding? Sasuke was right; this was definitely NOT Call of Duty. She was supposed to gun down these…things, but to her they were once people. These people had had family, lives, jobs before all of this happened to them. She let the rifle fall against the window sill, and pressed the heel of her left palm against her forehead. An image of her uncle's form made her suck in a quivering breath. How did Sasuke do this with just a bat when she could not even do it with a rifle?

Sakura did not hear Sasuke come up behind her until he accidentally bumped her with his leg. She looked up sharply, suddenly aware of the tears streaming down her cheeks. A look passed in his eyes that she was unfamiliar with, but it shocked her when he knelt down and took the rifle from her. She found him a second later sitting criss cross in front of her, his back cushioned against her stomach and sternum. Before she could say anything, he had positioned the rifle on his shoulder, set his sights on his target, and fired. The bang echoed in the silent neighborhood, but the thing went down with a shot to the head. Blood streamed from the wound as it fell to the ground.

Sakura's jaw dropped. Sasuke pulled the chamber open and slid another bullet into it, slamming the chamber shut again. He brought the rifle up again, and pulled the trigger to down another. This continued for a few more times until Sasuke stopped. Sakura noticed his breathing was coming out labored that sounded a lot like hers when the adrenaline poured through her own body. She looked out the window to see a slew of bodies on the asphalt, blood leaking from their bodies to pool on the ground. Her eyes went back to Sasuke, whose shoulders began to shake from the exertion of holding the rifle up. She suddenly remembered he had leaned into the rifle with his bad shoulder.

Sasuke let out a hiss when he lowered his arm to rest on his crossed leg. The adrenaline that pooled throughout his muscles and body was making him quiver uncontrollably. Sakura's uncle told him it was a natural feeling, and to take deep breaths in order to stay calm. When he had come up the steps in time to see Sakura line up her sights on her first hit. However, he knew she would crack and not go through with it. Sakura had never been the type to take a life meaninglessly, and even when she did she always cried afterwards. So, when he saw the tears rolling down her cheeks and her palm pressed against her forehead. He was stupid for not realizing the arm he shot with was the one that was injured; he was regretting it now as it throbbed. The adrenaline that was keeping his shoulder from ripping itself from its own socket was slowly moving away, and it was starting to quiver with pain.

A soft hand found its place on his upper arm, and Sasuke flinched at the contact. He looked down as it made its way up his arm to his sore shoulder. The contact made his muscles jump, but he closed his eyes and leaned his head back to thump against Sakura's chest. A groan rumbled through his chest as she rubbed his shoulder right above the spot where the muscles meet. Sakura moved from the stool and released his shoulders, but he was not disappointed when she knelt down in front of him in just her sports bra and loose sweatpants. However, she brought her hands to his cheeks and made him look at her.

"Stop assuming I can't do anything, Sasuke," she whispered. He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, so she continued. "You and Naruto are both guilty of taking things over for me because you are worried about me. Your efforts are flattering, but things have changed."

In the dank and dreary attic, Sasuke stared at his best friend who had certainly changed since he had come back from Japan. No longer was she the timid girl who followed him and Naruto around. In her place, a strong, independent woman sat. Her eyes were hard, the green reflecting strength caused by pain and sadness. He saw strong features that made him realize that he was definitely attracted to her in a way he had never been before.

Sasuke was raising his good hand to cup her cheek when he was interrupted by a cough coming from the attic entrance. The two broke out of their own worlds to see Naruto staring at them expectantly.

"Um, not to interrupt you guys or anything," Naruto said sarcastically, "but we have company."

After he spoke the last word, they could clearly hear the growls, snarls, moans, and groans of those that had heard the shots from the house. They began pounding on the front door and windows, and from the attic they could hear the strain it was putting on the infrastructure. Sasuke stood up and tucked his shoulder in. The look on his face brought smiles to his friends' faces.

"Let's get the fuck out of here."

* * *

Naruto jogged in place, eyes burning with determination. He was known to be a fast runner, but he did not know if he could outrun the corpses that were beating against the house. Looking towards the house from his spot in the backyard, he could see Sasuke helping Sakura pack food for their journey. Or, what they had left. They did not think they would trapped in the house as long as they were, but now they understood that they could not stay any longer. It did not help that they tried to be heroes in order to save the person in the tank. Now, they are forced to vacate the only safe place in the neighborhood because of their actions. They agreed that once they helped the person in the tank, they had to leave immediately.

The gun he held in his hand was one that he had found while searching through the master bedroom after Sasuke took care of Sakura's relatives. Once they became trapped in the house, he had to find ways to keep himself occupied. When he found the hand gun underneath the master bedroom's bed, he took it apart, cleaned it, and put it back together every day so he could be familiar with it. The idea of joining the cause to fight against these things constantly went through his mind, but there was no way to contact the agent that had come to their school. With the phone lines down and cell phone towers powerless, the only thing they could do was sit back and wait for something to happen. The three of them had sat down and discussed their plan before separating in preparation for the journey. They were to move through the city until they found people to help them, and then find Agent Kakashi.

And then what?

Naruto stopped jogging in place and crossed his arms, being careful with the gun in his hands. The thought of them being separated scared him. He did not want that to happen. They had gotten this far together, so they could stay together a little longer. Naruto nodded and looked up just as the other two stepped outside to join him. Sasuke was carrying a backpack that had the rest of the food they had left, as well as a hunting knife and tools they had found with Sakura's uncle's hunting stuff. Sakura was carrying the hunting rifle, as well as the bat that Sasuke had used against her uncle. It was clean of blood, but Naruto wondered who had gone to get it.

"You guys ready to do this?" he inquired. Sasuke nodded while Sakura gave a quiet _yeah_. "Okay, here's the plan. Sakura, you're going to go back up to the attic and watch our backs. We trust you not to shoot us." Sakura nodded and turned to go to inside the house.

"Sakura," Sasuke said suddenly. The girl turned back around and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah?"

Sasuke inhaled through his nose and said, "Remember, they are not people anymore. They were once, but not anymore."

"I know." With that, Sakura jogged into the house, rifle bumping against her back. Sasuke turned back to his friend and narrowed his eyes at his friend's expression.

"Shut up," he growled.

"I didn't say anything, dick face," Naruto grinned. "Anyway, I need you to cover my back while I outrun these mother fuckers. We're talking about a shit ton of Marcus's out there. As soon as we reach the first street, we need to signal to Sakura that she can come out. Otherwise we would be leaving her here to die."

"I got you."

"There are three streets separating us from that tank. Each street is full of those fuckers. Once I clear the first street, get Sakura and the truck and I'll hop in the back."

"Like I said, I got you." Naruto smiled at his friend and stuck his hand out. Sasuke smirked back at him and grasped his hand against his. "Good luck, dumbass."

Naruto nodded. He dropped his hand, his palms sweating. The grin dropped from his face as he faced the fence door that led to the side yard. Just on the other side of that fence laid a lot of things wanting to kill him. He knew it was up to him to get to the first street without being pulled down. As he walked up to the door of the fence, his hands started to shake, including the one holding the pistol. He reached up with his free hand and pulled the latch up carefully so it would not make a big noise. He felt Sasuke come up behind him, the audible click of the safety coming to his ears. With one hand, he pushed open the door and it gave a loud creak at it swung open. The growls and moans of the dead got significantly louder, and Naruto let out a breath when nothing came around the corner of the house. He crept through the opening with Sasuke right behind him, pointing the gun down to the ground. They slipped against the wall of the house, the snarls getting louder the closer they got to the front of the house.

Right as they got to the corner of the house, the sound of the rifle shot through the neighborhood again. A streak of blood exploded right by Naruto's face. The sight shocked him as the body of a slaughtered woman fell in front of him, eyes black and unseeing.

"Go!" cried Sakura from the attic. "I got you!"

The boys looked at each other and nodded before rounding the corner sharply. Naruto shot the first one that launched itself at him. The shot obliterated the side of a kid's head, who had been about the same age as them. A snarl that had been escaping its lips dragged into a strangled whine as it fell to the ground. Sasuke took a quick look to see how many there were. He got a count of about ten before he gunned down a woman clad in only a bikini. He recognized her as Sakura's neighbor, one whom he and Naruto had ogled at when they were in middle school. The sight of her bloodied chest and sternum, innards hanging outside of her belly, made his stomach turn.

Shot after shot rang out until Sasuke reached the truck, the keys jingling in his hands. He swung the door open and leaned over to insert the key into the ignition. Naruto yelled something at him that sounded urgent, but the yell went unneeded when something slammed into him from the side. Sasuke hit the open door as another undead reached for his throat, gnarled hands clenching and unclenching with the sound of its snarls. Raising his hand with the keys, he brought it down into the thing's eye. It squealed in pain and dropped like a rock. With heavy breaths, he sent a middle finger in Naruto's direction and jumped into the cab of the truck. He started the truck and rolled down the window right as Naruto and Sakura killed the last one in the front yard.

"Sakura!" Naruto yelled out. "Jump down!"

Sasuke positioned the truck right underneath the attic window just as Sakura was swinging one leg out. Suddenly, she started screaming at something in the house. Her face was frantic and she turned to the boys.

"Help me! There's one in the house!"

"Fuck," Sasuke exclaimed. Before he could jump out, Naruto jumped into the back of the truck and reached out.

"Sakura!" he shouted. Sakura looked down at him as she fended whatever was attacking her. "You have to jump. I'll catch you!"

Sakura gave one last look at the thing she fighting off, an elderly woman with half a face missing, and threw the butt of her gun into its face. It hissed and stumbled back, and Sakura took that moment to jump out of the window. She landed in Naruto's waiting arms, almost smacking him in the face with her rifle. The truck, which was already full of stuff from their attempts a few days before, bounced with the extra weight as she dropped. The suspension groaned, but stayed in place. It went unnoticed while Sakura slid through the open passenger door, having left her rifle in Naruto's hands. The one that had been attacking Sakura leaned through the window she had dropped from and landed with a sickening crack on the ground below. Sasuke peeled out of the front yard as it struggled to stand, gnashing its teeth in their direction. Naruto stuck his middle finger up at it as they drove towards the tank, his face set in a grimace.

* * *

They cleared the next two streets of the things, blood soaking the old truck and their clothes. Soon, they were parked in a drive way smeared with bloody hand prints and streaks from something they did not want to think about. Naruto was crouched behind a hedge with Sasuke and Sakura right behind him. They watched the tank circle around again, the crowd it had attracted smaller after their attempts to help.

"Do you think they know we're here?" Sakura whispered.

"They have to," Naruto answered. "We literally drove through two streets shooting up those assholes."

"AND we're driving around in a truck. Totally inconspicuous," scoffed Sasuke sarcastically.

"It saved our lives though. Don't judge her!" Naruto proclaimed.

"Shut up, y'all," Sakura hissed. "The tank stopped."

Sasuke and Naruto poked their heads over the bush and saw the tank had stopped. The three watched in silence as the tank sat in the middle of the street, the undead clawing at the enforced metal to get at the living inside. Suddenly, the hatch on the top flew open and a female soldier jumped up with an assault rifle. Her hair whipped around as she downed all the things that had been harassing her. The look on her face was feral and streaked with days old blood, but it was her eyes that caught Naruto's attention. While her hair was jet black, her eyes were a light shade of purple, which was the total opposite of what highlighted her face.

Another person flew out of the tank. This time, it was a male soldier with the same black hair, but it was in the typical military cut. He was noticeably taller than his companion, but his expression was schooled into a calm one. He had lost his uniform jacket, so he was just in his tan shirt. There was a red cross on the left breast, along with the last name _Harrison_ stitched underneath it. Not only was he taller, but he looked significantly older than them too. It seemed like he was in college, but he was too far away to tell. Like Sakura, he looked like a mix between Asian and white, but his features showed more white features than Asian.

Although they were covering each other's backs, they did not notice the one undead coming up behind them. It crawled up the side of the tank, teeth snapping at the guy who had his back turned. Sakura snatched the rifle from Naruto and jumped out from behind the bush. In the blink of an eye, she had shot the thing between the eyes. It gurgled and slipped from the tank, and the guy turned his attention to where the three had been hidden. His eyes were a bright blue, almost the same color as Naruto's. They narrowed in suspicion before shifting his attention back to the last undead that was trying to climb up the tank. Once it was shot and spreading blood back down the side, the street was silent. The three teenagers that were behind the bush stood up as the two soldiers got out of the tank.

Sakura stepped out first, her eyes narrowed as the soldiers talked low to one another. As they walked closer, Sasuke grabbed her arm and pulled her back slightly. She turned back to give him a look, which he scowled at.

"We do not know if they are good people," he whispered.

"They're the military," Naruto said. "They're obviously okay. Especially the chick."

"Seriously?" Sakura scoffed "That's what you thought of instead of whether or not we can trust them?" Naruto grinned and started walking towards the two soldiers, who were already more than halfway to them. He raised his hand in greeting and waved.

"Hey, dudes! That was totally-"

He was interrupted when the nose of a gun was unceremoniously shoved in his face, the click of a safety signaling the intent of the man behind the gun. Naruto's hands shot up in the air and shouting started from both sides.

"Put the gun down-!"

"Who the fuck are you-?!"

"Whose blood is that-?!"

"I said, put the goddamn gun down-!"

"Hold up!" Sakura shouted. Her gun was pointed at the female soldier, while Sasuke's gun was pointed at the soldier whose last name was Harrison. The female soldier, whose last name was Hyuuga, had her gun pointed towards Sakura. Taking the risk, she pointed her gun at Harrison and jerked her chin at him. "Who are the hell are y'all?"

"We were ready to ask you the same thing, girl," the man growled. "We were told this street was completely void of the living."

"Clearly, we are alive," Sasuke snarled.

"Pretty boy needs to learn how to shut his mouth," Harrison sneered. Hyuuga suddenly put a hand on his upper arm and pushed it down.

"Put your gun away, Lieutenant," she ordered. Her voice was soft despite her tangled appearance. "Why would you raise it at civilians?"

"Hinata," he sighed. "I have seen civilians turn into those things before my eyes, so I'm not sorry if my judgement is slightly skewed right now."

"Wait, did you say Hinata?" Naruto asked. He dropped his hands and took a step closer to the girl. Her face suddenly lit up as he got closer, but Harrison stood up and shoved him back. "No, wait! I know you!"

"Naruto," Sasuke said, "now is not the time to try and impress."

"No, I know her through Jiraiya! You're part of the infamous Hyuuga infantry!"

"Holy shit," Sakura whispered. "Your cousin is Neji Hyuuga, right? He graduated a year before us. You wouldn't know him, Sasuke. You had left before you knew him." All of this attention directed towards the female officer was causing her to become too flustered, which began to anger her lieutenant.

"Who gives a fuck if you all know her? I'm more worried about if any of you have been bitten yet."

The confused looks he received from the younger group made him scowl. "Did y'all not know that if you got bitten by those things then you turn into them?"

"Um, no?" Sakura said. "We've been trapped in my house for the last few days, so excuse us if we don't exactly know what is going on right now." She pointed her gun to the ground and walked up to the soldier. He stood his ground as she got to him. She was significantly shorter than him, barely reaching his shoulder. "If you could be so kind as to tell us, then we might be on better terms with one another."

"Besides," Sasuke scoffed, "you should be thanking us for helping you. If it was not for us, you would still be driving your damn tank through the streets with those walking corpses stalking you." He received an elbow in the ribs for that comment from Sakura. Lieutenant Harrison narrowed his eyes and finally sighed.

"So, it seems we have a lot of information to tell you," he said. He stuck his hands in his pockets and turned away from the group. "Now, let's get moving. Our base is a couple hours away on foot, and our tank is low on gas."

"We have a truck," Naruto implied. "You and Sasuke can ride in the back while Hinata and Sakura ride in the cab."

Harrison nodded. "Awesome. Sounds good." He turned to Sakura, who was talking low to Sasuke. "And please," Sakura looked up at him, and he smirked, "call me Nagato."

* * *

"So, you're half-Japanese, half-American?" Sakura asked Nagato. The lieutenant nodded. The group was flying through the back streets of the suburban area, carefully avoiding areas that were completely infested. According to Nagato and Hinata, the entire city went under in less than twenty-four hours. After the third day, the power grids went down, resulting in a city wide power outage. The two of them, including a Private who had lost his life the day before, had been sent out to find any survivors. Unfortunately, the remaining two had been stuck on the same street, trying to outrun the stragglers to no avail. Now that the tank had no fuel, they were stuck with the three teenagers.

Sakura and Hinata were in the cab of the truck with Naruto, while Sasuke and Nagato sat in the back of the truck. It turned out that Hinata was their age, recently recruited into her own family's division and had finished school early in order to receive a higher rank. The girl was currently having a quiet conversation with Naruto, catching up on what she missed in the last year. Sakura was speaking to Nagato through the rear window that slid open and closed. Sasuke was finding it very hard to concentrate on their surroundings while the lieutenant was blatantly flirting with the younger girl.

"I was recruited through my connections with Neji Hyuuga, who is actually Hinata's cousin," Nagato informed. "I was seventeen when that happened, and I have been in the division for three years."

"You're only twenty?!" Sakura exclaimed, her eyes wide.

"I still can't believe you're only seventeen," he chuckled. "When is your birthday?"

"Lieutenant," Sasuke finally said, "where is your base?"

Nagato sat back against the side of the truck, wincing as they rolled over something, presumably a body as the wheels crunched over it. "It's at the nearest school from here. I think it's some kind of private school."

"Holy shit!" Naruto shouted and slammed on the brakes. Sasuke and Nagato both slid into the back of the cab, hitting their sides against it. Sasuke's bad shoulder hit first and he let out a cry of pain. The sound alerted Nagato, who narrowed his eyes at the sight of Sasuke holding his shoulder. "Guys. We have a problem."

The two in the back of the truck stumbled up to see what made them stop in the middle of the road. "Oh hell," Nagato whispered at the sight in front of them. There was an entire mob of the undead stumbling around in front of what was once the teenagers' high school. Soldiers who had gone to volunteer and station at the school were now part of the undead crowd that moved throughout the courtyard. What was once the front entrance was now a graveyard of bodies that were once civilians and soldiers. There were former students who had chosen to stay at the school instead of go home, and had become caught up in the chaos. The snarling and growling was like an unorganized symphony. The ones that were immediately in front of the truck turned slowly to look at the intruders. Hungry eyes and mouths snapped to them, and Sasuke started slamming his hand on the top of the truck to force Naruto to move.

"Get us the fuck out of here, Naruto!" Nagato yelled, but the boy was already throwing the truck in reverse. Tires squealed on pavement, which drowned out the snarls of the undead as they started running after the truck. The girls were screaming while Sasuke and Nagato began shooting at the ones that were getting too close to the truck. Naruto continued driving backwards, using his side mirrors to navigate around obstacles and to avoid the things around and behind him. However, he did not see the light pole that appeared when he took a corner too sharp, and he rammed into it. The two in the back flew out from the truck, landing on the pavement with sickening thuds.

Sasuke's eyes flew open at the radiating pain that was shooting through his whole body, and he turned his head to look for Nagato. The other man was sitting slowly, wincing at the road burn that resulted from skidding across the pavement. There were shouts coming from the truck, sounding more and more frantic the longer Sasuke and Nagato took to get up.

Sasuke did not hear the snapping of teeth until it was too late to react.

* * *

 _Thank you,_

 _KD_


End file.
